Ok, I have a confession to make. I did not enjoy Treme. In fact I hated it. And no it wasn’t just because I had no idea what was going on the entire time… Alright, it was mostly because I had no idea what was going on the entire time; I was frustrated, I was bored, and I was angry at myself for being frustrated and bored. So the question I ask is, was it my fault? Or show creator David Simons?

Long-form narrative in television is probably the best thing to ever happen to the small screen since Betty White (how awesome is Betty White!?). But omigod is it a dangerous game to be playing. I don’t watch television conventionally. Most of the time I’ll sit down to a new show after impulsively buying the box-set and I’ll scrutinize it from the ground up. I’ll remember every plotline, I’ll dissect every episode and I’ll follow the arc to its completion. So a show that has a good story to sink my teeth into is something I’m always up for. But for the majority of people out there, when NCIS is the most watched show in America, a long complex plot isn’t always what the doctor ordered (my doctor loves The Mentalist). And what I experienced in this weeks screening of “I’ll Fly Away” Treme’s season one finale (cited in Morris 2013), is something I believe most people would also experience as a first time viewer. But it was still something I didn’t really anticipate. I really really hated Treme. And this is something that poses an interesting dilemma. Is a show defined by its series long arc? Or should it be judged at face value after one episode?

Drawing comparison to Simons’ other work The Wire, something that I have seen, it’s fair to say that he doesn’t pander. Without even a ‘previously on’ bit to catch us up, it’s clear that he’s not making these shows to satisfy a ratings mandate, he’s simply telling us a story that’s best watched from the beginning – and you better pay attention. As a result, people don’t talk about these shows as something they tuned into for half an hour and so became hooked. No, these are the shows that when people discover them, they will say “I am ready to watch The Wire” and thus commit to forsaking the real-world for the closest thing to a novel you’ll ever see committed to film. But does it really work as television? As something built to be consumed in 60-minute chunks? TV critic Alan Sepinwall, on the open-ended and unconventional nature of the pilot writes, “television in 2002 simply didn’t work this way – even the ambitious HBO kind of television… [Oz and The Sopranos] at least gave you a clear sense of the major players, and they provided some stories that had a beginning, middle, and end within the confines of that hour” (2012, pp.70-71). And I have to agree that there’s a fine line between a well-executed narrative, and a self-important writer who doesn’t respect the medium he’s in.

Because ultimately, television isn’t pitched to be a cult hit on DVD (sorry Firefly), it’s pitched to be able to invite new viewers and enthrall existing ones week-to-week and episode-to-episode. And this is where I find a big problem with Treme. I could care less what happens to these people. I don’t know where they’re coming from and I don’t feel the need to know where they’re going. Is it my job to care though? Or Simons job to make me care? Personally, and this is grand-sweeping statement time, I think that there should be something in every episode of every show that prompts a first time viewer to jump in. I don’t mean that a show should give up its message to satisfy newcomers, but that a shows creator can look at any episode and point to a moment and say “that’s it, that’s why you should watch”. But unfortunately, neither The Wire nor Treme apparently, manages to accomplish this in every hour they serve up.

Regardless of where I think they can try harder though, both The Wire and Treme do attempt something that I wholeheartedly support. I’m a big fan of the slow burn and look no further than Breaking Bad for a great example of when a show can be all the hotter for it. But I truly believe that David Simons needs to be sat down and told what is acceptable and not acceptable for a television series. And for me to be left wondering why I wasted an hour of my life, with the realisation that I clearly just skipped to the last chapter in a book. Well that’s not the point of TV, and I don’t see the point in pandering to a TV series that won’t acknowledge that long-form narrative is a two way street… And that most people are taking the bus.

Reference:

Morris, B 2013, Week 8 – The Poetics of Complex Narrative, PowerPoint Slides, RMIT University, Melbourne

Sepinwall, A 2012, The Revolution was Televised: The Cops, Crooks, Slingers and Slayers that changed TV drama forever, Kindle Edition, Self-published, eBook